


Indulgencia

by turtle_pie



Series: The Lion's Share [1]
Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, Not Like That, Unreliable Narrator, chase is an old man, gratuitous fancy suits, gratuitous footnotes, gratuitous kdrama subplot, i shouldve researched this better, jack accidentally becomes chases sugar daddy lol, jacks got the Worlds Worst Gaydar, jacks like 19 in this, theyre both into it, this whole fic is an exercise in self indulgence kindly humor me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-08-19 17:31:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16539083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turtle_pie/pseuds/turtle_pie
Summary: "Will this cover it?" Chase asked, conjuring a little flood of gold pieces from his open palm. Jack didn't know how to tell him that gold wasn't an acceptable currency in most parts of the world anymore. It was the power move to end all power moves, but it wasn't an acceptable currency."Please" Jack begged, wrestling the bill away from him. "Let me get this."





	1. Out of Water

**Author's Note:**

> Jack's hot when hes mad and Chase is kind of into it

The first time it happens is in a three Michelin star gastropub in Australia. Chase Young had tracked a shen gong wu[1] of some grand importance to the harbor, where it was swept in with the catch of the day and promptly bought off by an invitation only seafood restaurant.

Jack hadnt been privy to this particular hunt or anything. He had blocked off the rest of the week from xiaolin artifact collecting to do some stupid site visits to his parents’ international pharmaceutical labs. Recently, they had been pressuring him to start taking over the family business. They figured research and development would be a good deep end to throw him in, given his genius IQ and love of holing himself away in his labs[2]. Personally, Jack didn’t see a future in it[3] but it’s not like he could afford to get cut off yet, what with how often his robots ended up in scraps at the end of showdowns. It seemed like a fair enough trade in the end, a part time job and a share in his parents’ company’s resources in exchange for his genius intellect and a couple of medical breakthroughs to push the company ahead every two weeks or so[4]. Anyway, he managed to end up at the harbor at 10 pm on a Sydney Sunday evening around the time Chase magically teleported into view. Talk about fate. The universe sure didn’t want him to give up on world domination. This was obvious, but the little things like this sure helped him feel appreciated.

Chase had brushed him off initially, less attuned to the forces of the universe than he was maybe, and attempted to intimidate his way into the restaurant. It could have worked, but Jack realized that the mysterious stranger in ancient armor was starting draw attention to himself. Jack had been tempted to leave chase to his own devices[5] he wasn’t in on Chase’s big plan and he had no use for the wu, but when people started pulling out camera phones, he knew he had to intervene.

Two phone calls later and he and Chase Young were a party of two at the most exclusive gastropub in probably the world[6].

“No, no absolutely do not cook it under any circumstances” he told the bewildered waitress. Across from him, Chase refused to take his eyes off the massive tanks that lined the restaurant walls. His sexy reptilian gaze zeroed in on the bright gold and red Pied Piranha.

“You want it raw, sir?” she asked, thrown off. “I suppose I could talk to the sushi chef.” She offered, placating.

Jack was too jetlagged and exhausted to deal with it. “Look, just, take the fish and put it in a Ziploc bag or something. You have Ziploc here, right?” he pulled his wallet out of his blazer. “I have to be on a nine-hour flight to Hanoi in four hours. Make this easy for me, I’m begging you” he said passing her a couple of green bills. She smiled nervously and trailed back to the kitchen without a word after that.

In front of him Chase watched the wu be scooped up by kitchen staff. Jack dared him to growl. In words instead of just in his head. He had to be in a nine-hour flight in four hours and his sense of self-preservation was slowly whittling away.

“Watch yourself Jack Spicer.” Chase said, growling, because why not. Jack would be intimidated if it wasn’t running on two goddamn hours of sleep, but as it was, he just used some pretty sketchy connections and a massive amount of cash to play at one of Chase’s little whims and he wished he could get just some kind of thank you for it.

“I’d say the same to you Chase” Jack snapped. “We’re here on my dime, aren’t we? I don’t know about you but my parents taught me to be gracious to the goddamn host.” The waitress showed up again, nervous smile plastered on her face, holding a bright bottle of 2013 Semillon. Jack nodded without looking at her to fill their wine glasses, not bothering to taste it.

Chase’s eyes glinted something deadly, but he smiled. “Apologies, Spicer.” He picked his wine glass up. Jack was at a loss for words, that Chase had apologized and that he wasn’t a shredded pile of flesh at his feet at that very moment. “I didn’t realize a worm like you could grow a spine. But I suppose all things are capable of great change with time. I’m only sorry it took four years.”

There it was.

“And I” Jack started, with a death wish. “I thought great warlords would have better things to do than run around after little toys, fighting children.” Chase was an unholy force of nature on the other side of the table from him. The tide of his bloodlust started to rise to Jack’s neck a palpable way. “even mosquito larvae can’t live in stagnant water forever huh. Even you had to be sick of letting the world turn without you for what 1500 years?”

Under the tide, Jack hoped he could swim it out. Chase’s voice drained the room with a sigh. “This is awful.” he said dumping his wine onto the floor. It wasn’t a subtle redirect, but Jack was equally uncomfortable at this point and he’d take what he could get. “Market places have not changed for the better in the years.”

“Market-- this isn’t a market.” Jack said throwing himself into the new tangent. “It’s a restaurant. You know, luxury dining. You sold your soul for power, notoriety, and wealth. This one of the things people do with those, these days.”

Chase glared at him, Jack supposed he could live with that.

“Why set up your so-called luxury dining like a common wet market.” Chase looked around like there was some kind of joke he wasn’t in on.

Jack didn’t understand the confusion. The restaurant was all high ceilings and black-tie hedonism. The menu was a shameless affront to marine wildlife conservation efforts. The fish tanks that surrounded the restaurant probably cost as much as an actual functioning aquarium to maintain. That’s when it hit him. The frame of reference was out of sync. Chase wouldn’t think being watched by the dinner special was the height of luxury. To him, having the tanks in the dining space must have given off the air of an avant-garde fish aisle. Jack scratched his neck.

“It’s not just to show you what you’re eating. It’s to show off, period.” Jack explained. Chase stared at him. “Listen, they’ve got salmon from the Atlantic, tuna from the Pacific, and the wu you’re after was probably caught in South America this morning with the rest of those freshwater piranha. They’re all here for one meal not even a day after they were all hoisted up in a net. The fact that you can see them all in one place just to eat them is a miracle.” Chase nodded at him to keep going, animosity fading incrementally to follow Jack’s train of thought. “We didn’t even know how to eat that weird mollusk in the tank behind you a hundred years ago. Puffer fish poison is strong enough to off thirty grown men and you can have some chopped up for you in the raw bar. You can eat like you own the world at this place, and all for the right price and the right connections.”

“How fortunate I am, you mean” Chase interrupted, coldly “to know someone who can pay the price, and have the connections.”

“I didn’t- that wasn’t what I meant by-” Jack waved an arm meekly at the restaurant “all this.” Chase was on another ego trip, he could sense by the glare. His pride was hurt. Jack had the epiphany that midway into this whole affair, that may have even subconsciously been the objective. He had, after all, gone through the whole nine yards to get them both here. Why all the effort, he struggled to comprehend now that he had more or less sobered up from the exhaustion high of being in the middle of a 70-hour work week.

Chase Young wanted something, he retraced his steps to the start of the night. Chase wanted something Jack was in the position to give him, and at that moment they were on equal footing. The unreachable Chase Young was just a person who wanted something Jack could give him, so why shouldn’t Jack stop at nothing to make it happen?

But why would he want to? Why so badly?

Some animal part of Jack was honed in to the force of Chase’s gaze, like a young deer in the prime of life caught in the sights of an apex predator. Some human part of Jack basked in it. He felt seen. He couldn’t understand why he needed all this but he did. He would be the man who paid the price and exploited the connections.

Across from him Chase’s gaze softened, but his frown remained firmly in place.

The waitress returned with a small Styrofoam box and almost slipped on the wine Chase tipped out over the side of the table. Jack sighed. She found her bearings and leaned over with the box to the show the Pied Piranha in a clear bag full of water. “It should keep for about five hours or so.”

“Thank you, Jenny.” Jack smiled as non-threateningly as possible. Chase hadn’t stopped staring at him even once since he started. “I’ll have the check please.”

Jack and Chase resumed their staring contest until the waitress got back, and Chase swiped the bill out of her hand before Jack could say a word.

“Are you- do you have the right currency for this part of the world?” Jack whispered, trying not to piss Chase off again.

"Will this cover it?" Chase asked, conjuring a little flood of gold pieces from his open palm. Jack didn't know how to tell him that gold wasn't an acceptable currency in most parts of the world anymore. It was the power move to end all power moves, but it wasn't an acceptable currency.

"Please" Jack begged, attempting to wrestle the bill away from him. "Let me get this."

“I will not be in your debt, Spicer” Chase seethed, finally fed up. Jack had to come up with some kind of game plan.

“You wouldn’t be” Jack said quickly, thinking on his feet. Chase looked unimpressed. “Listen, I have a nine-hour flight in four hours and between you and me I haven’t eaten since yesterday. In exchange for the Shen Gong Wu, have dinner with me here.”

“Excuse me?”

“The Pied Piranha and one measly dinner. Is that enough to have the pleasure of dining with the Heylin Prince of Darkness?” Jack shamelessly appealed. “Because if it isn’t, I can give you anything else you want. Name it it’s yours.”

Chase finally broke eye contact. He took the box with the Pied Piranha and whooshed it away to who knows where with his magic. “It will suffice.” He conceded, quietly.

Jack couldn’t help but feel triumphant. What exactly he’d won he’s not sure, but it was the most alive he’d felt in a good three days. “Ever heard of caviar? I’m in the mood for some caviar.” He smiled, waving the waitress back[7].

 

 

 

  
[1] The Pied Piranha: Capable of luring out any enchanted sea creature.  
[2] Since robotics engineering and pharmaceutical chemistry were basically the same thing right? whatever   
[3] not just for himself either. Humanity was clearly going to start importing their consciousnesses to robot vessels that were impervious to disease or aging. If his parents ever had half a mind to listen to him, that’s what they’d be investing in.  
[4] this week's big contribution: a visit to the antivenom labs in the southern hemisphere to introduce them to the Spring Vial, a wu that would fill with any liquid poured into it overnight as many times as you wanted as long as a single drop was left in the vial at the end of the day. what? he's evil, no one said he couldn't cheat and use a magical artifact.  
[5] after four good years he could start taking a hint  
[6] wow.  
[7] what could possibly go wrong?


	2. Shop Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So," Jack wiped his hands on his shirt and jumped into the convertible. “Ever been on a horseless carriage before, Mr. Turn of The Century?” 
> 
> Chase felt around the door for the handle, letting himself in. “I know what an automobile is, Spicer.”
> 
> “Then you should start calling them cars.” Jack grinned condescendingly, putting a hand behind Chase’s headrest to back out of the curb. “Or people will think you don’t.” 
> 
> Instead of edging away from him in disgust, Jack caught Chase muttering under his breath about “filthy merchants and their roundabout, rootless, nonsense words.”
> 
> “Eh, write me a think piece, grandpa.” He said, speeding out of the driveway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer: I'm gay and I can't drive

When he was 16 his mom bought him his first car. It seemed redundant at the time, given he’d been building and dismantling all manners of vehicles for years by then. “What do you mean?” she had said accusingly, “You just got a license, what would you be doing with them.” He had, gratefully and with many hurried thanks, had his jackbots tow the car into his lair before she could have any more suspicions. It was a practical car, new and modest, with a red glare and sleek lines. It was love at first sight. 

He eviscerated it promptly. 

Today, he was almost put off by the clichéd nature of it all. Evil tech genius who could command a top of the line robot army blasting cheesy club tracks in a grimy corner, breathing new life into a gutted 1993 Toyota Celica Alltrac. Raimundo Pedrosa had called him gutsy for even attempting it, stupid and gutsy, and laughed in his face. What did he know? 

He held in a scream as the engine dropped out of the chassis and on to his foot. His jackbots watched in artificial horror from the robot-free perimeter he set up around his “garage.” He managed to pry himself from the mess of a leftover rally car and silently swore, and then after commanding his jackbots to cover their auditory sensors he _loudly_ swore, clutching his foot and hopping in place. The jackbot equipped with the fire extinguisher hovered by the perimeter, jittery. “Smartass, stupid, insubordinate, piece of junk” he mumbled over the pain, vowing to turn that jackbot into a toaster the second the swelling died down. He didn’t need this today, not after the afternoon he’s had-- 

“Spicer” a voice called out behind him. He turned to his monitor, expecting to see Chase Young’s perfectly symmetrical face in the viewport, but nothing was there. “Spicer” the voice called again, sounding more and more suspiciously like Chase Young. “Oh, for gods’ sakes” it said. Two hands made an idiot sandwich out of his face, and he found himself staring into the handsome visage of the Heylin Prince of Darkness himself. This time he screamed. 

“Chase!” He pointed. “What are you doing here?” In lieu of an answer, Chase rolled his eyes and grabbed his wrist, gingerly closing Jack’s hands around an object like he didn’t trust him not to drop it. 

The MacPuffin![1] “The MacPuffin!” Jack exclaimed, turning the golden, fleecy, bird statue in his hands. He had lost this very Shen Gong Wu to the monks just a couple of hours ago in a decidedly trademark Xiaolin Showdown. He had wagered his Dog-Eared Dive Suit but lost to Omi and the Lunar Locket in a jet ski race on a beach in the Galapagos. It was, admittedly, great weather for a jet ski race and an all-around pleasant afternoon in general, with the monks inviting him to stay and hang out after. He had even been tempted to join, it wouldn’t have been the first post showdown soiree he’s had with them in the years. Instead, he flipped them off and sped away in his private jet.[2] The encounter had left a terrible taste in his mouth ever since, one he could only hope to wash out with the equally terrible experience of taking apart the nightmare car he managed to talk down online to basically nothing. “How did you- Why would you-”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “Call us even.”

The Pied Piranha, and dinner the other week, Jack thought back. “We were already even though” he said, eyes flitting around his filthy workshop. He waved at a jackbot to come take the Wu before something inevitably exploded in the vicinity. 

“Aren’t you tired of lying to me yet, Jack Spicer.” Chase sneered. Jack hadn’t been lying to him that time, but he appreciated the implication that he would, and with the MacPuffin in his grasp it was hard to argue against keeping it. “I simply accepted your strange proposal to save myself the trouble of dealing with you. Now, the debt is paid.” Chase clarified almost defensively. 

“Yeah, and you really seemed to like those oysters.” Jack rested his hand on a table and almost slipped on motor oil. “So, is that all you’re here for? Or...” Jack trailed off, wondering if offering snacks or drinks would go over as terribly as last time. 

“Of course, what other business could I possibly have with you and your strange machines?” _Strange machines_ , he said, just edging on fascination. Jack had his doubts about making an audience out of Chase Young, who had historically wanted nothing to do with his inventions. Part of him entertained the idea that their dinner in Sydney had shifted the balance of power somewhat. Chase wanted something again, and if Jack could just keep him around long enough, he might manage to lure it out of him. 

“Yeah this one’s a real piece of work.” He said hurriedly, banging on the roof of the Celica. “It’s a shit car but it’s my shit car, you know. Or it will be, once I’ve done replaced-” he circled it, giving it a good once over “-everything. Literally everything about it. This is not a good car.” 

Chase looked close to giving up, a look Jack was personally familiar with from their brief stint as master and apprentice. He wasn't a car person then. Jack didnt really consider himself a car person either, until that first long drive with the Jackmobile MK 1. 

Jack grabbed one of his less worn out looking leather jackets from a coat rack in the corner, passing Chase as he threw it on. "Where do you think you're going, Spicer?" 

Jack patted himself down for his keys. "Let's go for a drive." he opened the garage door. "Cluttered and stuffy is a look even you can't pull off." He hoped Chase was actually following as he walked around the side of his house.

"Cluttered-"

"I meant my lair" Jack clarified, a little late on purpose, just to get a rise out of him. "Imperial Chinese warlord aesthetic on the backdrop of a dirty garage isn't exactly a full page spread on Vogue. Even with a face like yours." Although, the more he thought about it, the more he thought that would be a great full page spread for Vogue. It would have to be curated just right, with more of a sleek chiaroscuro warehouse look than his usual organized chaos, but if Chase could just lean on a tool trolley and maybe be holding a sword--

"Jack"

"Here we are," Jack announced, both arms raised to show off the shiny but battered charcoal grey convertible[3] with olive brass accents in his driveway. "This is Dana, Dana meet Chase Young." He said proudly, retracting the top half of the car and hitting a button on his car remote. 

_"Welcome Jack and Guest, pleased to be of service."_ It's silky masculine voice rumbled from the dashboard. Jack had personally outfitted Dana with only the best of the best of his prototype AIs and enhancements, so the fact that it had been running as long as it was a miracle. 

"Dana is a man?" Chase asked incredulously.

"Dana is a car, she doesn't have a gender." 

Chase squinted at him. 

"So," Jack wiped his hands on his shirt and jumped into the convertible. “Ever been on a horseless carriage before, Mr. Turn of The Century?” 

Chase felt around the door for the handle, letting himself in. “I know what an automobile is, Spicer.”

“Then you should start calling them cars.” Jack grinned condescendingly, putting a hand behind Chase’s headrest to back out of the curb. “Or people will think you don’t.” 

Instead of edging away from him in disgust, Jack caught Chase muttering under his breath about “filthy merchants and their roundabout, rootless, nonsense words.”

“Eh, write me a think piece, grandpa.” He said, speeding out of the driveway. 

\--

His first car was a ninth generation Honda Accord, new and top of the line. In a matter of hours, it was completely dismantled. He remembered the individual components lined up neatly on his warehouse floor, except for the engine which was hoisted up on lines. It felt like it was below his paygrade honestly. He sat down on the floor taking mental inventory of the parts. His head swam with the possibilities. The engine was in great shape and he'd needed a transmission for a back-up generator. Everything in the dashboard could be re-purposed or dismantled for parts, and any scrap metal could be melted down for later. The idea of using up the vehicle in its entirety excited him. 

Instead, he got up and reassembled the car exactly as it was, putting everything back in its place. At the end of an all-nighter of reassembly he let himself into the driver's seat and fell asleep to the radio. 

"And where is it now?" Chase ventured disinterestedly from the passenger seat. They had passed scenic Walmart and were just making their way around a few neighborhoods, Dana guiding them on which roads were mostly traffic-free. A few houses had already started putting up Christmas decorations. Jack looked at them fondly, fingers tapping on the steering wheel, making a plan to wander around again some evening. 

"It's in the garage. My parents' garage, I mean. The real garage at my house." He snapped back to the present. The plan to glean information from Chase was going terribly. So far, he'd just been rambling about his own issues. "It'll be there when I need it." 

"Stop wasting my time." He heard Chase say next to him. Jack turned to argue but realized that Chase was talking to the car navigation. 

_"Apologies Mr. Chase Young, how may I be more efficient?"_ Dana inquired. 

"Stop taking us around in circles and bring us to our destination already-" 

"Hey" Jack put up a hand to shield the navigation from Chase's ire. "Dana's not taking us in circles, _I_ am. That's the point of a drive, we're not actually going anywhere specific." 

" _You_ aren't even piloting this stupidly complicated machine."

Jack squeaked, caught red-handed. Dana was fully autonomous like most of his fixups had been, outfitted with prototype AIs for beta testing in the real world before he decided if they could be put into more heavy-duty vehicles or aircraft or submarines or what have you. He hadn't been paying any particular attention to the road in retrospect, but he didn't think Chase knew enough about the actual act of driving a car to tell the difference. "What gave me away?" He asked, taking both hands off the wheel. 

"This panel" Chase tapped at the car navigation screen. "The car responds to the energy it sends out, but not to any of your controls or buttons. Perhaps that is for the best." 

Jack chose to ignore the obvious dig at him in favor of this new information. "You can feel when the AI is sending signals to the car? Like with magic? Does it register like the electromagnetic impulses in living things or are machines distinct-" 

"Living things" Chase interrupted, " _are_ distinct. Their energy combines and interacts with the energy of the life around them. Your machines only operate and communicate within their systems, in specific fields of interconnected energy that lead them to paths that communicate in specific ways with each other." 

"Wow" Jack gaped. Chase wasn't just aware of how the basic layout of his machines worked, he also pretty much understood what a WIFI hotspot was. "I guess Kimiko always has one of those around her huh?" 

"Yes. Your friend, the Dragon of Fire, always seems to be followed by this." 

"She's taking over her dad's company or something so it makes sense to have a good connection." Jack remembered how jealous he used to be when she had perfect reception during Wu hunts in the Antarctic. "And she's not my friend" he added unconvincingly. 

Chase raised an eyebrow but ignored him. "This vehicle we're in is in its own field isn't it?" 

"Yeah, to be fully autonomous I have to make sure it's got the feed from whatever surveillance, GPS, or traffic monitoring is in the area. It's running a bunch of different processes as we speak to consolidate all the information it's being fed." Jack watched a car cut them off, Dana screeching to a halt just in time. "Otherwise, it won't be able to read off the stupid human drivers on the road and get into an accident." He sneered, wishing he was alone so he could cuss out the driver ahead of them. 

Chase seemed to meditate on this. "It's annoying." He said finally. 

"Pardon." 

"It's... distracting, to me, when I'm right in the middle of it. The signals fire in distinct way without a rhyme or reason. It's, how did you say it? Cluttered and stuffy." Chase explained, mocking. Jack gulped. "I felt less annoyed in your so-called evil lair, at least it wasn’t a travelling metal box. Take us back there." Chase said to the dashboard again. 

"Wait" Jack said, "the nature of the car is the issue, but most of them are just an engine on wheels. Do you think you'd be able to relax better on one of those?" 

"It's not out of the question." 

Jack thought back to the 2013 Honda Accord sitting in his garage, and then back to Chase who literally invented the art of Warlord but make it Fashion. No, a simple starter sedan wasn't good enough for the Heylin Prince of Darkness. "Dana, take us to Lexus."

_"Calculating route."_

\--

Jack had always thought of himself as a practicality over aesthetics person. Form follows function, less is more, yadda yadda yadda. He was an _artiste_ and a craftsman, but he was never one to sweat the exterior details, finding the straightforward look of his handmade machines suitably encapsulated the image he tried to portray as an evil genius. He'd take a used pickup truck over a shiny new coupe any day as long as he could modify it to his heart's content. 

That said, the sight of his childhood hero Chase Young in a luxury sportscar was like a divine epiphany. His presence elevated the atmosphere of the entire showroom when he walked in. Jack was wrong, this was the Vogue full page spread that needed to happen. Dare he say it, a two-page spread, maybe even a feature interview. 

"Is your, uh, friend wearing armour?" The saleswoman asked next to him. 

"Yeah, he's quirky. It's all authentic." Jack explained. "So, this is the model I wanted?" 

"Yes, all to your specifications over the phone Mr. Spicer, and may I say you've built quite the monster" she complimented. Jack was almost tempted to tell her not to bother trying to convince him. He felt like he'd drop dead on the spot if he let anything get in the way of buying Chase the obsidian black LC 500h with rear wheel drive. Not that he could let the saleswoman know that, his mom and dad would kill him if he didn't even bother bargaining with the dealer. 

"I'm planning on looking at a number of other brands too" he bluffed, "do you mind if I keep it for a test drive overnight?" he did his best to channel his mom at business negotiations. The saleswoman excused herself to check with her manager. Just then a gold light seemed to envelope the car. Jack rushed over as inconspicuously as he could. 

Chase was sitting with his eyes closed in the driver's seat. Jack recognized it as a look of meditation. Relieved that everything was normal, he tapped on the glass and let himself into the passenger's side. "Spicer," Chase acknowledged. The car ignited to life around them. 

"P-pretty sweet ride isn't it?" Jack powered through his amazement. Chase looked as natural in the Lexus as he did lounging in his throne room, surrounded by predatory cats. Why wasn't he a model? "Not as, uh, distracting as Dana.[4]" 

"It is... satisfactory." Chase admitted. Jack beamed. "Except for this thing" Chase frowned at the car navigation. He drew a hand over it and it fizzed out, smoke puffing out of the display. 

"I... can you undo what you just did." Jack deadpanned. 

"No." 

Jack sighed, there goes haggling for better seat warmers. He figured was gonna gut the GPS for Chase anyway. Maybe he would prefer a vintage am/fm radio or a cassette player or whatever they had 1500 years ago in monastic China.[5] He had no idea how he was going to explain this whole thing to his parents. They had been begging him for a year now to buy himself a decent car instead of rescuing another metal death trap from the jaws of the impound lot. He supposed he was doing just that, only it was for his long-time evil kind-of-ally-sometimes, a man who could literally teleport anywhere in the world on a whim. If he split the cost into installments, he figured he could maybe hide it in the lofty overhead they afforded him, but his mom still regularly checked his accounts. "I'm buying Chase Young a Lexus" Jack said softly to himself, trying to convince the act to catch up with him. He was unsettled by how comfortable he was with all this. The saleswoman tapped on the glass. Jack opened the window. 

"My manager says you can't keep this particular model overnight but you can test drive it until before closing, to see how well it works in the dark." She informed him politely. 

He snuck a glance at the driver's seat, at Chase testing buttons and dials, at the supernatural way he was familiarizing himself with technology. He felt some cosmic thing deep in his chest that rang like purpose. It was more than a vision, it was an opportunity. "I'll take it" he told her. "Draw it up, make it quick, one-time check payment, no insurance. I want this car out on the road asap." 

She paused, smile unnerved, clearly expecting a different answer. "Pardon?"

\--

"There's no way you've never driven a car before." Jack laughed as Chase rounded a sharp turn with the grace of Yuna Kim's 2010 olympic free skate.[6] He had assumed there'd be a pretty sharp learning curve where Chase was involved, but he didnt expect him to start speeding off like a natural without at least a basic rundown of the controls... or gas[7]

"It's like riding a horse" Chase smiled. _Smiled_.

"You mean like riding a bike?" 

"A what?" 

He had hoped to start them off in a wide empty space e.g. a parking lot, but Chase had teleported the whole car out to a wide mountain road and just started driving. Go big or go home, he guessed. He realized car accidents weren't much of a scare when you were immortal[8]. This particular area had been special to Chase, in his own words. Jack could almost feel him drawing power from the wide mountain range, and the speed he built up, and the incongruous oneness he had with everything he touched, machine or otherwise. 

"Is this what it's like to live forever?" Jack said absentmindedly. 

"Sometimes" Chase said softly. "It's everything, but it's also a lot of nothing. But when it's something" Chase sped up so he was practically flying over the pavement, "I've found it's often something completely different."

Jack let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Chase had always been handsome in an otherworldly way but like this, all wide eyes and bravado, he seemed younger than the evil overlord he had idolized in the past. He felt like he was seeing something he shouldn't have and refused to tear his eyes away. Chase was a vision in the golden hour, frozen in time. Again, he wondered what it was like to live forever. "Cool" he said way too late, to cover up how he'd been staring. 

Chase chuckled. It was clearly a day of firsts for him. "Perhaps I will start indulging more often in the things people of this age do with wealth, power, and notoriety" he teased, "if they are all as thrilling as this." 

"Most of them suck really." Jack confessed, remembering how he'd embarrassed himself over dinner the other week. "But it's hard to beat a rush like this." 

Chase hummed in agreement, clearly lost in the moment. 

Jack watched the sunset over the mountains up ahead. They had been driving for several hours now which meant it was already well into the early morning back home. He did the math and put them somewhere on the eastern hemisphere. Maybe sometime he could convince Chase to try out his private jet. He'd have to call up his passport guy to forge Chase a passport if they were going to go sight-seeing though. 

"The MacPuffin" Chase said out of nowhere, "you realize that its enchantment is to lure people to itself. Do you still want it as badly as you did, now that you have it?" 

"Of course," Jack said immediately. "Imagine how great something like that would be as a distress signal. It's not just psychological, the nature of the Wu is reality-altering on some level. It's guaranteed to be found once it’s activated." 

Chase smiled, he had that look on his face that said he had set the bar for Jack's answer very low in his head. "That is a... unique perspective." 

"But then, the psychological research opportunities aren't a laughing matter either" Jack rambled, spurred on by Chase's approval. "I’ve been putting effort into reverse engineering enchantments. They aren't chemical, so they don’t have the same side effects or risk of dependency. I can already see it changing the way we develop stimulants." The shop talk[9] was starting to remind Jack of the flood of work emails he still had to answer, and the site visits he'd still have to do to make his new plans happen. He smiled through it. "Marketing would have a field day with this too, I guess." 

Chase turned to look at him, still driving perfectly. Damn, maybe he was the one who needed driving lessons from him. "Is this what drew you to the Shen Gong Wu in the first place?" He asked. "Integrating their capabilities into your industry?" His tone was neutral but searching, in any other context Jack might have thought it was condemning, but he could tell that wasn't it. 

"No, you can blame Wuya for that." Jack admitted, suddenly feeling 15 years old and extremely self-conscious. "I was young and I didn't have a lot of friends to knock any sense into me, you know? At the time, there wasn't really a problem I couldn't build a robot around. Wuya showed up with her little scavenger hunt and her promises of subjugating the world as we knew it and it all seemed perfect. I could test my genius intellect and creations against all this ancient magic mumbo-jumbo and defeat a monastic order of Xiaolin knights and make it out with the whole world." Jack smiled reminiscing. "And then it didn't exactly work out like that." 

"Maybe it was never meant to" Chase said, more to himself. Jack frowned. 

"We can't all be Immortal Magical Warlords with command over the forces of darkness." 

"Calm down, Jack, I am-" Chase seemed to choose his words. "Empathizing with you." 

Jack's eyes narrowed at him. "Explain." 

"I think, perhaps, our stories have more in common than you think." Jack never thought he'd see the day Chase would willingly identify with him. "I was a student under Dashi when Wuya rose to power. Her magic was unlike anything I had ever seen. The wellspring of her power was unbridled and limitless, drawn from her rage and the chaos she inflicted. I was transfixed. It went against everything we had been taught in the temple." Chase paused. "At the time, I wasn't trying to abandon the Xiaolin way. I merely wished to arm myself, to not be quite so confused and helpless about this strange magic. I would sneak into the temple's library in the small hours, gleaning whatever knowledge I could from their cautionary tomes about the horrors of Heylin magic." The car skidded to a stop. Jack was glad he was wearing a seatbelt. "I faced her as a monk just once. She was on a warpath. Guan and I were the only warriors in the vicinity. I sent him to get our teacher, prepared to die just to hold her off. I _would_ have died, except in the end I used a Heylin spell to redirect her magic. She had been impressed, but Guan and Dashi were not. They kept a close eye on me after that." 

"But not close enough." Jack quipped. 

"No" Chase agreed. "I suppose my weakness at the temple was what drew Hannibal Bean to me. Never mind the wedge my encounter with Wuya drove between me and Guan." 

Jack nodded politely but he couldn't really see what that whole thing had to do with him specifically. He appreciated the lore though, and he figured even people like Chase needed to vent sometimes. 

"I’m saying" Chase clarified, annoyed. Jack sat up, surprised. "I'm saying the paths fate lays out are strewn about without logic or care, churning in their nonsense orbits around the central conflict of light and dark, tradition and innovation, anarchy and civilization."

"Would be pretty boring otherwise." 

"Indeed." Chase stared straight ahead, serious, and started driving again. "The only thing you can hope to have control over is yourself and the choices you make. Never forget that. When it all falls apart, labels like Xiaolin and Heylin, Good and Evil, they don’t get to make your decisions. Power is power and consequences are consequences. Which is why I’m not going to tell you to stop fraternizing with the monks.” 

“I do not _fraternize_ -” 

“Just listen to me. I was Xiaolin once too, and you remember how badly I, for a time, wanted to train Omi as my apprentice.” Chase said, to which Jack scoffed, pettily. “This is how the world works, something the Xiaolin Dragons are taught from day one. When the forces of evil rise every generation or so, the forces of light come up to meet it. I have watched from the sidelines for centuries, as great and powerful evils have risen out of the corners of the Earth, all seeking to use Heylin magic to new and horrifying ends, each adding to and improving on the last. Every one of them would leave their mark on history or be vanquished by the Xiaolin warriors. When Wuya was freed from the puzzle box, it was no surprise to me that the new Dragons would be as wildly powerful and equally polarized. But new Shen Gong Wu still appear, and with them they only grow more well-rounded every day despite the fact that Wuya has been missing for years now.” 

“You’re saying there’s something else out there,” Jack realized. “something stronger than anything else they’ve faced.”

"Not stronger, but perhaps completely different. Something that will be unlike anything any of us have encountered before.” Chase took a deep breath. “That something might just be you.” 

The inside of the car was very loud, Jack was just starting to realize. Between the air-conditioner and the engine, and the wind whooshing by the car, and the radio Chase refused to turn on. Jack wheeze-laughed at how loud it was. “That’s nice.” He wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye. 

“Jack-” 

“You can just drop me off here now” He laughed, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the door while they were moving. Chase drifted the car 180 degrees so that there was an inch between Jack’s door and the mountain side of the road. “Holy fucking shit what _are_ you?” Jack screamed. 

“You freed the Heylin witch from the puzzle box. You were the catalyst that freed Hannibal Roy Bean from the Yin Yang world. You have been finding and recruiting allies in the fight against the Xiaolin order since day one.” Chase confronted him. “I’ve wracked my brain trying to come up with a common thread and it’s you, somehow it always leads back to you.” 

“All those guys lost or are gone off the face of the earth. You really think I’m a match for all those Xiaolin losers by myself? They’ve beaten me a hundred times.” 

“At their game, with rules they made.” Chase reminded him. “With trinkets built for them a thousand years ago by the man who built the battlefield. Do you think it’s a coincidence that you’ve been there since the beginning and have never once bothered to use Heylin magic against them?” 

“It’s obviously not my brand.” Jack held his hands up. 

“You are standing at the dawn of an era, Jack Spicer, you are growing strong in a storm that is moving too fast for even me to comprehend. I’m imploring you to think about what it is you actually want and the resources at your disposal, and what you’re willing to do to make it all happen. You have a chance, like I did once, to change the way the game is played, and what it means to win.” 

Jack took a deep breath. A lot of very real information was just given to him very quickly. Whether or not he was truly convinced of everything Chase said was beside the point, and he knew it. Chase was giving him a push and a warning. It was completely on him to achieve everything he’s ever dreamt of and it came with the prophetic near guarantee that he’d lose it all in the end, that his adversary was getting stronger and stronger by the moment and only to crush him at the height of his power. 

“If the universe wants someone to knock off a pedestal,” he said finally, slowly, “I’ll make sure it’s a long fall.” 

Chase’s smile was pleased, embittered, and hungry. 

\--

They didn’t drive long after that, stopping at the entrance to Chase’s evil lair after just five minutes in a pretty seamless full teleport. Because, magic _question mark_.

“I hope you will meditate on what I’ve told you today.” Chase said as they got out the car. 

“I’ll definitely think about it” Jack sighed. He had a million questions but couldn’t pin down a single one. He almost wished they could’ve gone on forever just chasing the daylight and speeding down the mountainside, but already fatigue was starting to set in. “Hey, be honest, would you have told me... what you told me if we had just stayed in my lab.” 

“Yes,” Chase confessed, “but I wanted to see what would happen if I let you take the reins for once.” He placed a hand on the LC 500h “And was pleasantly surprised.” 

Jack thought back to his days of Wu hunting for Chase’s approval and never recalled feeling as good as he did in this moment. “My tribute” he grinned proudly “to our partnership.” 

Chase made eye contact over his brazen proposal, not displeased. “I look forward to working together.” He said sincerely. 

Jack felt like he owned the world. “Do you think I could come in?” He nodded at the mountainside that housed Chase’s castle, trying his luck before his bravado ran out.

“We’re not quite there yet” Chase snapped his fingers. 

Jack found himself right back in his lair, Jackbots beeping in concern around where he magically appeared. He patted himself down in his confusion. Teleporting was so weird. He found a little piece of paper in his jacket pocket. _“I’ll be in touch.”_ It read in Chase’s handwriting. 

“Show off,” Jack mumbled. "I should really get him an iPhone." 

 

 

 

  
[1] The MacPuffin: Once it's activated, it becomes irresistible to both heroes and villains.  
[2] That's right folks, no more missed flights for Jack Spicer.   
[3] A 1969 Mercury Cougar for anyone keeping track.  
[4] Dana is fully autonomous, it drove itself back home. Calm down.  
[5] Apparently a string instrument called a _qin_ was really popular then? He wasn't really sure if he could put one of those in a car.  
[6] Absolutely go watch that right now.  
[7] The H in 500h stands for Heylin magic. Yes, he's using the hybrid model because I wanted to make that joke.   
[8] It had taken him forever to convince Chase to wear his seatbelt. "This is a stupid trap." "It's not a trap it's the law." Just. That went on for five minutes.  
[9] Hey, that's the title of the chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cut out the part where they made out in the back of the car but maybe next chapter anyway thanks for reading im still gay and i still cant drive


	3. The Auction: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chase gave him a look more familiar from their earlier days, annoyed to be asked such a thing, but seemed to catch himself. “It wasn’t my first thought. Although, it can be jarring seeing the great art of my youth behind glass with clay bowls and tax records of all things.” he admitted. “The beautiful and the mundane have always had a special place in history.” He adjusted his tie in the reflection of the glass, distracted. 
> 
> “When you put it that way” Jack pondered, “I guess the only thing that makes them as valuable as they are is that-” 
> 
> “They survived this long” Chase finished, face unreadable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cut this in half for length, next part should be up by tonight or tomorrow

Nobody cancelled plans with Chase Young. Jack knew this. He got a brief refresher on this fact over the last few months of his new... relationship with him. For a man with literally all of eternity in his hands, Chase tended to hoard time like, well, a dragon. "Strict rituals for a sound mind," he would say, and Jack couldn't even argue because Chase was the only 1500 year old he knew who wasn't completely batshit. Chase never made leeway for Jack, not for his work plans or Shen Gong Wu hunts or his impromptu family matters. By the first few weeks of them being "in touch" Jack had started keeping a pretty tight work-life schedule, never making with plans with Chase unless he was sure nothing was set to come up during that time. 

Which is was how he found himself at Chase's mountain lair at 3pm on Saturday afternoon, that is 11 pm on friday back home, to install his WIFI. 

"You're early, Spicer." Chase said, irate, meditating in a vaulted circular room littered with burning incense. 

"Yeah, well" Jack lifted a cord away from one of Chase's tiger attendants to stop it from swiping at it. Sometimes he forgot they used to be people, he guessed they did too. 

"Stop thinking so loud and get on with it." 

"I have a thing later, in uh, Seoul. My mom wants this tapestry thing from a benefit auction, but something came up. She wouldn't let me out of it so I thought we could push up this WIFI thing." The tiger started chewing on one of the cords. "Look you don't even have to get up, just call off this stupid cat of yours and I'll get this done in an hour." 

"That stupid cat was once a King." Chase smiled smugly, snapping his fingers and making the animal retreat. 

"I don't say this a lot whenever you're involved but that's fucked up." 

"Flattery means very little to me." Chase lied, like a _liar_. "But our agreement was still 18:00." 

Jack tried to sit down on the marble floor and stood back up when he heard his royal majesty Mr. Tiger growling at him from the threshold. "It's just WIFI, it's not rocket science. You don't even use the iPhone I got you, or the macbook, or the smart tv." 

"They all say to connect to WIFI." 

"And I'll install your WIFI like I said I would, and you can figure it out with your magic like you do with all the tech I give you, and we can hang out tomorrow," Jack bargained, then thought about it, then brought out his own phone to check his itinerary. "Actually, it will have to be on... Tuesday. I have to attend a bidding while I'm in Seoul, and the site visit to the Cheonju facility is more of a window, but after-" 

"Jack Spicer, it shouldnt be a secret by now that I plan our, what did you call them 'mentorship sessions' around the little excuses you make to spend time here." 

Jack paused. There wasn't time to unpack _all_ of that. "I-" 

"If you truly cannot excuse yourself from your obligations, even if it means disrespecting me and my time, then I will simply have to attend your function with you." Chase said firmly. 

Jack laughed. 

\-- 

"Mom, I'm gonna need a plus-one for the museum gala" he said over the phone. They were at a tailor at Hongdae, buying Chase a proper suit just two hours before they were supposed to show up at the event. "Yes, mom, it is that guy who's been consulting for us... How should I know? He was just in the area... Alright, mom, I'll let him know his advice worked... No, mom, we're not seeing each other- Do I want to? What kind of question is- Mom, I'm gonna have to call you back." 

Chase exited the dressing room, trailed by a seamstress and an attendant. In full hanfu traditional attire. "I already have a similar ensemble-" 

"What am I looking at?" Jack asked, rhetorically. His very jet-lagged temples were aching like nobody's business. "He's supposed to be in a suit" he said to the young foreign looking attendant, who was too busy making goo-goo eyes at Chase in formal silk robes to pay much attention to him "this tailor shop is a Korean brand why do you even have that in the back?" 

Chase translated for them to which the seamstress answered something in Korean, that the attendant argued with. Chase held a hand up to silence them and said something in again perfect Korean that made them leave immediately. Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "They say they saw me in my armour and assumed I was an actor." 

"Like in a historical drama?" Jack supposed that was on him for not bringing his translator bot. 

"No, they said specifically that I was like Henry Cavill and Lee Dong Wook had sexual congress that resulted in a child that was much more attractive" Chase said, like he didn't know what that meant. "I'm assuming they are actors." 

Jack was sure Chase was doing this to him on purpose, looking back at the door the seamstress left through. "Did you tell them it was a formal charity gala?" 

Chase shrugged in the, admittedly very well-fitting, layers of fine white and gold silk he was wearing. "I made sure this time to stress the necessity of a _modern_ outfit." 

The seamstress came busting in with her arms full of brightly colored three-pieces, better suited for music bank on KBS, the attendant right at her heels. Jack couldn’t believe he was saying this but "No, no, _no_ montages. We are _not_ doing Pretty Woman. I'm getting in there with him myself, we only have two hours to find you an outfit and get to the venue." 

\--

Jack had many regrets. 

"Are... garters supposed to feel this tight?" Chase asked, showing off his calves. 

Jack cowered in his corner in the small dressing room away from Chase, which was also incidentally a mirror so really there was no hiding for him. He looked back, face burning to ashes. "They should be a bit lower, snug but not tight. Pants go on after." 

Chase nodded and adjusted accordingly. Jack had picked him a pretty conservative all black three piece in textured silk. Not because Chase in an all-black textured three-piece suit was a particular fantasy for him or anything. It had been the only thing the seamstress picked out that wasn't in saturated avant-garde hell patterns. Chase would've made every single one of them look amazing, honestly, but that wasn't what was up for debate here. "Jack," Chase called. "If you're not going to help me then call back those other two." He said, losing patience. 

Jack swallowed. He figured he was being unprofessional here, at Chase's expense. He turned around and steeled himself. "Everything looks right so far," he commented, backing up so he was against the wall and circling Chase to make sure everything was in place. He reached for the waistcoat and motioned Chase forward to help him with it. "I don’t like the way that guy looks at you," he admitted, tugging on the shoulders of Chase's silk dress shirt once the buttons were in place. 

Chase met his eyes in the mirrors of the fitting room, gaze cold and wily. "With foolish, unrelenting awe?" Jack tried and failed to avoid eye contact, fingers focused on the expensive suit jacket in his hands. "How do you think I felt, the first time I met you?" 

Jack laughed weakly, buttoning Chase's blazer. He didn't have to, but the closeness begged him to distract himself somehow. There was barely space between them in the changing room, Jack noticing how small their height difference had become over the years. "I think... you like being the center of attention more than you let on." 

He dared to look Chase in the eyes, and was pushed against the dressing room mirror. Chase’s lips closing around his. 

“No, no, no way-” he pushed. “No, I’m not going to miss this stupid auction just because you-” 

\-- 

They were an hour early to the event, even after stopping by Jack's hotel so he could change. 

"You were fine teleporting me places this whole time?" 

"You never asked." Chase reminded him, from the general vicinity of his right. Jack couldn't risk looking directly at him too much, or else he might not look at anything else. He could only tell exactly where Chase was by the direction heads were turning toward him in museum's auction gallery. 

Jack couldn't blame them. He silently and shamefully thanked his fifteen-year old self for being an edgy goth gremlin who collected the weirdest suit accessories out of spite. The textured black of Chase's suit paired with gold lion head lapel tips made his heart do flips. The store attendant also refused to let them leave without giving Chase a pair of plated twisted dragon cufflinks. Jack insisted on paying for it, but the statement he got from his credit card later made it clear he didn't even bother charging. He had also shamelessly and unsubtly left Chase his phone number in the bag. Jack didn't bother hiding the fact from Chase because Chase doesn't even _use_ a phone, so... joke's on that guy. 

"How do you know Korean?" He asked. The relative silence of the non-soundproofed museum gallery bouncing with the idle chitchat of South Korea’s eclectic bourgeoisie was nagging at him. He remembered once wanting to learn spoken Korean as a kid, just to get a reprieve from his mom’s taxing Mandarin lessons, but that didn’t really fly with her so well. Now, like most half-Chinese people living in California his age, he didn’t really know all that much Mandarin either. 

“I don’t. It’s a glamour” Chase explained patiently. “To understand, and be understood. The Tongue of Saiping works in much the same manner.” 

“I thought glamours were only used for appearances.” Jack recalled. 

“A vast majority, yes, and semantics-wise more so. The glamour of comprehension was an enchantment Mas- Dashi learned on his travels, it has many variations. The glamour to appear familiar to another was, let’s say, the root of this tree of spells.” 

“In that it _branched_ out from there?” 

“Precisely. By building on the glamour, Dashi narrowed down a number of spells for a number of different purposes. Among them was Comprehension, which enables the caster to be understood by anyone trying to communicate with them.” 

“And by extending its effects to the feedback you would understand them back. That’s cool, I always thought it would be the other way around.” 

Their, apparently official, mentorship sessions had often consisted of the wealth of Chase’s ancient and unparalleled knowledge of the supernatural packaged in easy-to-miss tidbits of informal conversation. What had seemed needlessly obtuse to Jack at first, as though Chase had been testing him to ask the right questions in the weirdest game of Jeopardy ever, took on a new light as of three hours ago. The more he thought about it the more he realized Chase might have been letting him set the pace for their interactions out of some prerogative to follow Jack’s lead. It was a recipe for miscommunication right from the start. He figured they should probably clear their whole arrangement up... at a more convenient time. Tuesday, maybe. 

“Glamours tend to be reactive.” Chase murmured. “The temple had initially reprimanded Dashi for trying to introduce fae spells to the Xiaolin library of magic, but it proved to be too useful a tool in fighting Heylin magic.” He made a right turn back into the antiquities wing of auction-able items. They had been walking in circles around the wing since they got there, specifically, Tang Dynasty art and artefacts. 

“I guess this must be a little nostalgic for you” he observed. Chase usually tried to avoid elaborating about his time before Hannibal Roy Bean and the soup. Part of him wanted to pry for the sake of prying, the idea that Chase was making an effort to be transparent at his behest nagging at him. 

Chase gave him a look more familiar from their earlier days, annoyed to be asked such a thing, but seemed to catch himself. “It wasn’t my first thought. Although, it can be jarring seeing the great art of my youth behind glass with clay bowls and tax records of all things.” he admitted. “The beautiful and the mundane have always had a special place in history.” He adjusted his tie in the reflection of the glass, distracted. 

“When you put it that way” Jack pondered, “I guess the only thing that makes them as valuable as they are is that-” 

“They survived this long” Chase finished, face unreadable. Something about him was off. He looked stiff, and out of sync. It was if he had some itch somewhere, or something in his outfit had snagged. He paused often to adjust his clothes. 

Jack tapped him on the shoulder, his eyes were dragon eyes. “Chase, I change my mind let’s bail” he said, urgent but calm. He’d been in enough metaphorical storms to sense one rolling in, and his internal barometer had gone haywire completely out of the blue. It was the kind of flight or fight instinct that begged him to be smart before someone _else_ got hurt. “I- I’ll take the fall from my mom, but... something’s off with you.” 

“With me-” Chase echoed. “Yes, just here- with me- _You're_ fine after all” he reasoned to himself. “I’m perfectly fine- but you must excuse me a moment” he said mechanically, and didn’t leave Jack room to argue. 

“Chase-” 

“I will handle it, and return shortly.” Chase turned around so quickly Jack almost bumped into him. “Jack, do _not_ trust him” he warned. 

“What the- Don't trust who?” he asked, baffled, just as he lost Chase in the crowd. 

"Jackie is that you?" A voice called out behind him. 

\-- 

He was 10 years old when he first met Remedios Ayala Sabina and her little gang of goody goody spotlight-hungry two-faced overachievers. They had all been sent to a robotics course for gifted young prodigies in Hong Kong one fateful summer, and Jack still had the physical and emotional scars to date it by. She and her little clique were a good year younger than him at most, but succeeded in every lesson he failed, laughing in his face whenever one of his machines failed to start or blew up or gained sentience and turned on him. Oh, how he despised them. 

"Guys!" She waved over her mindless drones, not caring if her elaborate hand waving was inconveniencing the other older guests in the gallery. "I found Jackie, and he's hot as hell." She ran up and hugged him, way too familiar, and grinned ear to ear like she had absolutely planned this.

"Remi, what the fuck?" He struggled. "How did you know I'd be here?" 

"Your mom called me!" She bounced excitedly. Damn it, he knew his mom had been too pushy about this event. "You're always seen-zoning me on fb, Jackie, what gives? Are you avoiding me?" 

"Yes" he croaked out, losing air in her snake hold. 

"It's been too long, Jack," greeted Veer Thomas, Remi's shadow, always hot on her heels. He could finally add 'tall' to 'dark and handsome' but his mild and subdued presence hadn't seemed to have changed. "You’ve been well I hope," he held out his carbon fiber right hand for Jack to shake. He was always too nice for his own good, and too flighty. Jack had heard that he quit hard robotics to study physical therapy, eventually creating a start-up focused on prosthetics development at the impossible age of 16. A start-up that would later be absorbed by one of the top electronics manufacturers and suppliers in the world. 

"Jack Spicer." 

Speak of the devil. The devil being Sejun Han, bastard son turned legitimate heir to his father's electronics empire. Jack had always had a bone to pick with him. They had been the closest in age by six months, but Han had always had a habit of showing Jack up for no goddamn reason. Whenever Jack's projects failed miserably, he would be close behind with a perfectly functioning model. Any idiot with half a braincell could see where he was copying all his ideas from, but their instructors always preferred to side with results. Remi and Veer he could play nice with, but Sejun Han could eat a bag of dicks. Han refused to make eye contact when he held his hand out to shake. Jack ignored it. "How's your brother?" he asked instead. 

Han was caught off guard, face heating. "He's recovering well, thank you." 

_Liar_ , Jack thought. Han Sejun was a wolf wearing a pretty face. When stalking his former nemesis' social media for dirt had gotten boring (due to significant lack of dirt) he had turned his attention to his family's case, and Han Sejun had relied one too many times on petty bribery to completely cover his tracks. He had engineered the wiring accident that killed his father, and Jack was almost positive his half-brother was never going to wake up from his coma. 

Maybe this stupid gala turned reunion didn't have to be so boring after all. Someone as wired as Sejun was sure to have something incriminating on his phone, and now he had the perfect excuse to spend time beside him all night. Exposing a murderer/usurper at an auction house, what a fun little side quest, he laughed evilly in his head. 

"Geez, Jackie" Remi scolded. "We can't get anything past you, can we? 'How's your brother?'" 

Veer laughed demurely into his hand. "That useless half-sibling of his is going to die peacefully in his sleep, if he knows what's good for him." 

Jack stopped in his tracks, not realizing he had started following them around the gallery. "What?" 

\-- 

Time, money, and capitalism could really do wonders for a bunch of rich geniuses. Evil wonders, that is. Remi and her angel faced, media darling, social advocate, philanthropist henchmen were _bad_. Turns out he should've been spite researching all of them instead of just Sejun. They were _monsters_ , creative forward-thinking self-obsessed monsters, and Jack had always had a heart for monsters. 

He'd insisted on hanging around the antiquities to wait for Chase. They were nice enough to keep him company. 

"But not too nice, I hope," he riffed. They laughed. Jack wasn't used to people laughing at his jokes. He tamped down the ugly feeling that they were just sucking up to him. It really didn't matter in the long run if they were sucking up to him. 

"Jackie's always been a trendsetter, and that's coming from me." Remi bragged, snapping pictures on her modified Galaxy S9 "So tell us, are Late Imperial Chinese Artefacts about to make a comeback?" 

"In more ways than one" he said, smirking. If they only knew the tides he was turning with his Shen Gong Wu research. 

"It's like you and Remidios are the same person," Veer commented, hovering fixated on an ancient general's battered armour. "She's been all about this stuff lately. Did she tell you she spent a week at a Xiaolin temple in China just last week?" 

Jack froze. "You don't say?" 

Remi laughed, her seashell earrings clinking like chimes. "It was business. You know Kimiko Tohomiko of Tohomiko Toys? The coding queen?" 

"We've met" Jack gritted. 

"Did you know she's a Xiaolin monk? She lives at the temple and is learning how to run her dad's company from there. Like, can you imagine how peaceful and wholesome that must be? To just be isolated from the world except to, like, meditate and do tai chi and like be one with nature? I'd get so much work done." She said dreamily. Jack didn't bother correcting her. 

"You wouldn't last a day" Sejun chimed, never more than a foot away from behind Jack. It looked like he wanted to walk next to him, but kept shying away at the last minute. "And by work I think you mean your social media?" he teased. 

"My social media _is_ my work" she protested. She was right, over the years she had used her prolific robotics background and natural charisma to become one of the most influential tech personalities in the commercial sector. "Our contract stipulated, specifically, that I could continue to run my accounts." 

"Within reason" Sejun reminded her. 

"You two are working together?" Jack turned around to ask him. Sejun almost walked into Jack, his face reddening again. He could tell something was going on between the two of them but not a business partnership. 

"I'll be consulting for him extensively" she bounced in place. "He's gotta replace a lot of those stuffy geezers on his dad's board. Oops, moment of silence," she signed the cross over her heart. 

"For him or for his old board?" Veer smiled, but bowed his head respectfully. 

Monsters, the lot of them. Jack knew this, but something felt off now. He remembered Chase's warning. He didn't have magic or dragon senses or the instincts of a Xiaolin warrior, but he could take Chase's advice and venture outside his own head. 

He marked the exits, the layout, Sejun Han still red in the face in front of him, furtively trying to ignore all the messages ringing from his phone in his suit jacket. They had been standing around talking by a tapestry, old and browned with time, sitting behind glass. It was the very tapestry his mom wanted, so maybe Chase had a point about him being more self-aware. 

The silk depicted a great mountainside and a skirmish between two feuding camps. Warriors on horseback rode out to meet each other with banners and spears. Sejun met his eyes through the reflection in the glass, and flinched. 

"You got some kind of problem with me, Han?" Jack confronted him, taking a step closer. 

"I just" he said nervously, "couldn't help but feel like there's bad blood between us, and I've been wondering what I could do to fix it... I've always admired your work, Jack, ever since we were kids. I learned so much just by watching you," he admitted shyly. 

Jack blinked. He hadn't expected that. He retreated, trying to appear non-threatening. "You really mean that?" He scratched the back of his neck, hoping to see past any flattery. 

"I do!" Sejun stepped forward excited, and tried to tamp it down. "Your method was always so fearless and unhinged. Your AI was always so seamless and sophisticated. You were a genius among geniuses. It was all I could do to keep close and study your designs. It was, perhaps, a little annoying to you?" he asked, embarrassed. 

_It was annoying when you got the credit for all my work_ Jack thought, but realized now that he might have been reading it wrong the whole time. He had been reading all of them wrong for the past ten years apparently. "Water under the bridge" he said, placatingly. 

"What a tender moment" Remi cooed, snapping pictures on her phone again. He wondered if maybe there was some kind of allergen in the air that was keeping a permanent heat on Sejun's face. 

"You two are so cute," Veer agreed. 

"Shut up" Sejun pleaded, turning away. Which was, maybe a little uncalled for. Jack knew he wasn't Henry Cavill and Lee Dong Woo's hypothetical lovechild level attractive but he was still a catch. 

"So Jackie, are you seeing anyone?" Remi pried. Sejun's head whipped up to look at him. Jack could feel the weight of their stares, condescending. 

He scanned the crowd for some kind of distraction and did a double-take when he spotted Chase approaching him. “I’m here with someone,” he said without thinking. 

Their faces fell. 

“I- he’s heading over right now-” he could only hope Chase wouldn’t obliterate him on the spot for what he was about to do. “Chase, baby, what took you so long?” he wheezed like a balloon losing air. 

He could tell the exact moment Chase stood beside him by the palpable way he projected power and prestige. “Hello, I am Jack’s lover” he said without missing a beat.

Jack turned beet red. “I- did we agree on ‘lover’?” 

“We have many things to attend to so-” 

“Chase, honey, no-” he interrupted. Chase shot him a look as if to say _Aren’t you trying to get away from these strange people._ Jack pointedly held his arm out for Chase to take, raising his eyebrows. Chase rolled his eyes and held on to his arm. “These are some... old friends. Remi Sabina, Veer Thomas, and Sejun Han. Guys, this is my- date... Chase” he tried to think of a believable fake last name “Young” fuck “We are dating, and that is the truth” he lied. 

\-- 

Remi and her friends regarded Chase coldly as they wandered the exhibit, asking him personal questions and sneering at the way they walked arm in arm. Sejun seemed exceptionally skeptical, glaring at Chase whenever he thought Jack wasn’t looking . It was like Chase had personally wronged him somehow. Clearly, they thought he was lying, and he was. Chase, in turn, stared each and every one of them down, gaze searching. Jack was starting to suspect that there was something going on here that might have been a little more serious than his current issue of pretending Chase was his date. 

They were making small talk when Jack honed in on what was off. Chase’s breathing had been weird since they met up again, his pulse was quick, almost animal. Chase noticed him noticing him. _I’m sure you’ve realized but I’m not in the best of shape today_ he seemed to say with his eyes, and probably magic. 

_This better go both ways._ he eye-said back. 

_It always does._

_Where did you go? What’s wrong?_

_There is... an object here. It is emitting a strange power. Do not panic, I feel myself slowly losing control of my human form._

Jack choked on nothing, coughing once and waving the conversation around him to keep going. 

_If it’s gotten to that point..._ Jack schooled his expression back to something resembling neutral. _Chase, you’re you so I know I’m not gonna be able to tell you anything you don’t already know. Do what feels right._

Chase nodded once, saying something to the group that Jack couldn’t make out. _These friends of yours_ Chase resumed _they have lured you here._

_Don’t trust them?_

_Do_ not _trust them._

_Which one specifically?_

Chase’s expression shifted. _I can’t tell. This strange signal keeps coming back to this group, but I can’t tell who for sure. I know I said ‘him’ but it could be the girl. There’s too much in her orbit._

_I’d say watch out for Sejun, he’s been looking at us weird all night._

Chase turned to look at him, squinting, and then at Sejun, who looked away when they made eye contact, and then back at Jack, like he had just said something really dumb. _No, it’s obviously not him._ Which, rude, but whatever. 

_This object... it’s not a Shen Gong Wu is it?_

_It’s not Xiaolin magic, it feels like Heylin magic but not quite. It’s the same component, material, but... bent somehow, twisted and perverted to suit a specific purpose. At least as much as Heylin magic can be bent and perverted._

_Whatever’s after you has got some kind of plan, then. I have to say, I don’t like how badly the deck is stacked against you._

_I hope you know how strange a sentiment that is, coming from you._ Chase turned to him. 

_...How much do you want this?_ he thought seriously. 

Chase leaned in close, breath hot against Jack’s ear “This thing that hunts me is dangerously capable, and dangerously prepared. How much do I want to sink my teeth into the trespasser that haunts the edge of my vision? That makes me feel unsafe in my own skin?” 

Jack nodded. 

_Enough._

_Then, it’s yours._ Jack gave in immediately, as if there was any question. _Give them hell, but stay in touch. Use your phone._

Chase made a face next to him. 

_I’m serious, this thing might start messing with your magic to make it easier to take you on in a fight. I know that’s how I would do it. Keep it as a lifeline._

_I will consider that, as I proceed._

“Turn it on” Jack hissed, unsubtly, turning to smile rigidly at his childhood friends. They had run into the curator and his little group of art school interns and were chatting about something or another. Chase rolled his eyes and took his phone out of his front pocket. It was already on to Jack’s surprise. 

He sped through all the update notifications to connect it to the museum WIFI. His head snapped up when he heard Remi exclaim “there’s no way that one’s fake!” 

He looked over at them, at Chase having joined the group, and how they were huddled by him around one of the exhibits. “I have better things to do than to argue the authenticity of pitchers, however the cracks along the side give it away.” 

The curator was so offended he was at a loss for words. His interns murmured among themselves in Korean. One particularly brave student raised her hand, practicing her pronunciation under her breath, accent heavy “it is... mm... a rep-- reproduction? Or ...misdate?” 

Chase regarded her coolly, replying in perfect Korean. Now that Jack knew how the glamour worked, it was interesting to see it in action. He noticed the extra second it took Chase to parse the feedback he was given, pausing longer whenever the interns loaded their sentences with foreign art jargon. 

“I didn’t know your... boyfriend was so good at spotting forgeries” Veer started next to him. “Is he Korean?” 

“No, no, he’s Chinese. He’s just... uh, he’s a collector,” he smiled through his teeth. Not a lie, Chase was certainly a collector of valuable ancient... warriors. 

“He doesn’t have an accent” Sejun spoke up all of a sudden. Jack started to sweat under the laser focus of his scrutiny. Sejun hadn’t seemed to like Chase from the beginning, heaven only knows why, but now that dislike seemed to morph into suspicion. He repeated Chase’s words to himself as he said them. 

“Sejun?” Remi asked after him. 

“‘In textiles you must recognize a scarcity of natural fabric dye’... hmm... ‘reflecting on the complications of trade between Tang and Silla who were at war with Goguryeo’... what a comprehensive sentence” he translated, unemotional. “‘Far from the only forgery in this auction... you will notice from the nature of the dye alone...’” 

Chase motioned at a tunic behind glass to his right, at a remnant of a silk wrapping cloth behind him, and then to very tapestry he and the rest of them had gathered under, the one he was here to bid on. 

“Wait what?” 


	4. The Auction: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know, that temple's been up for more than 1500 years?" Jack leaned on his hand, beckoning Remi closer like he had a secret. "Do you wonder why they spend so much time studying martial arts, in a place that's all about balance and meditation?" 
> 
> She nodded, intrigued by the conversational detour. "Kimiko said the Xiaolin monks used to be warriors, collecting and defending magical objects from people who wanted to use them for evil. They kind of just kept studying martial arts for the tradition. 'S a cool story, I didn't think you knew about it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is late cause i changed the ending a little bit but I'm really glad to finally finish this
> 
> on with the show

He’d been fielding calls from his mom all throughout dinner. She was not happy to find out the tapestry she had been eyeing for months was a fake, asserting in her usual fashion that she should speak to the museum board about their vetting policies. Jack let her drone on, trying and failing not to think about Chase. 

He separated from their group right before dinner to deal with[1] that thing he had to deal with, promising to update Jack whenever convenient. Sejun, surprisingly, also left before dinner to make some calls. That left him alone with Veer and Remi who hadn’t stopped talking about one thing since they sat down. 

"And, like, every morning they wake up and spend like three whole hours meditating. She told me when she first became a monk it was torture, but eventually it helped her mind sort through all the nonsense, you know? Like a mental algorithm. It wasn't about not thinking the whole time, it was just about not getting in the way of organizing everything" Remi rambled. Because really nothing would make this night more perfect than extended conversations about the banes of his existence. 

He checked his messages when his mom finally hung up. Nothing from Chase, despite his many messages asking why Sejun “couldn’t possibly be the one behind this.”[2] And Jack knew for a fact Chase was reading them because he hadn’t disabled read receipts. Somehow knowing he was being ignored made things worse.

Jack felt something crinkle in his front pocket. _He didn't_. A paper note in his trousers read "That one's in love with you." Jack couldn't believe this hearsay as he patted himself down again, another was in the left pocket. "Obviously." It read. "I don't know how you are the last one to realize this."[3] A note unfurled from his sleeve. 

" _Text me you coward._ " He sent on his phone. 

"There's no signal..." a parchment note in his pocket now read. 

" _that's not how texting works_ " he sent back, organizing his little parchment notes over his dinner plate. Remi and Veer were staring at him. 

"Uh," he said intelligently, pushing another paper note back into his sleeve. "Chase likes to leave little notes in my clothes... It's one of his quirks. He's like obsessed with me or something." He lied through his teeth. 

"That arm candy of yours is really cute, Jackie" Remi smiled dully, not even bothering to cover up how little she felt for Chase. “What is he, like, a model? A struggling actor? A paid actor...” Jack ignored her. 

Veer looked at him a little skeptically, like he wasn't sure if he should say what he should. 

"Is Sejun in love with me?" Jack asked at the exact same time Veer asked "is Chase a robot?" 

"What" he said the same time Veer said "yes."[4]

Jack waved his arms around to announce a time out. "Chase is not a robot." 

"He's an amazing specimen" Veer insisted. "I expected seamless AI from you but not all those naturally integrated body mods." 

Remi leaned in, interest renewed, "you know I noticed his eyes had some kind of biomimic autofocus to them? What is that? Reptile? Extra-conical prosthetic vision is unbelievably hot on the market right now." 

"Please let me borrow him" Veer pleaded. Jack couldn't have imagined the antisocial glint of a mad scientist in his eyes, and felt that was worth coming back to later. "You never publish, I just want a peek at your method," Veer begged. 

"I didn't publish because Chase isn't a robot" Jack said, with an air of finality. "He's just weird. He's like old, old, old money, like his money’s still in gold or something. So, if you wanna ask about his... body mods, then that's between you and him." 

Remi leaned back, disappointed to hear that Chase wasn't a robot Jack built for the sole purpose of having a date to the gala. He didn't know what to tell her. Veer seemed sad to hear it as well, but brightened at the prospect of asking Chase about it later. Jack supposed that one was on him.[6]

"Where'd you meet him then?" Veer asked. 

Shit. "He's- we met uh, on an... archaeological expedition." Fuck. "We were at a beach... and I slipped on the shore and he caught me" 

"Archaeology?" Remi chimed, "where and what for?" 

Jack supposed if he was gonna lie with the truth, he should at least go all the way. "It was off the coast of Thailand. Me and some... friends got a tip that there was a site that found some Sui dynasty artefacts and made a day out of it. I put my sandals on underwater, and slipped backwards, and then.. yeah there was Chase." Jack tried to will his blush away. "He didn't want anything do with me when I was- I mean when we were kids but we met up again in, um, Sydney and we've just been together ever since." 

"Wow, so Chinese antiquities are kind of your thing, huh?" Veer put together. 

"If you only knew," Jack said slyly. "We're all futurists here, I think. But you know what they say about people who don't learn from history." 

Remi and Veer seemed to consider this. Not for the first time Jack realized how ready they were to treat him as some kind of authority. 

“What changed, do you think?” Remi refused to let go. “Between you two? Since then.” 

Jack thought back. “I bought him a Lexus.” 

“Ah.”[7]

Jack coughed, thinking of how to change the subject. "The Xiaolin temple?" He asked Remi. Veer groaned. 

"I can't wait to get to my studio and edit our interview" she picked up. "Imagine how popular this video's gonna be when I've bankrupted her company." 

What. "What?" Jack put to words. "What do you mean? What's going on with her company?" 

"Remidios is," Veer supplied, put upon, like he's had to witness this speech as many times as he's had to listen to Remi drone on about her adventure to China. 

"You've met that little sparkplug Jackie, you know what she's like. She pretends to be some peaceful little hotshot tech giant who can have it all, but deep down she's just some reckless insecure kid." The irony was killing him. "I've wanted Tohomiko forever, but she's not gonna sell, so I've been convincing some connections to underprice in biddings against her. She hates losing out to big corporations, enough that it's gonna start building up. She's gonna burn herself and her little supply chain out, and then Sejun and I can force her into handing over her company." 

"Jesus Christ," Jack said, completely caught off guard. 

"I know," Veer sighed. "Really brings you back to when she used to pull the legs off beetles." He chuckled. Like that was at all equivalent to what she had just proposed. 

Jack wasn't exactly sure what to feel in that moment. Proud, maybe? More than a little impressed? It was a move that was Machiavellian in its heartlessness. These new enemies of his enemies felt Heaven sent. He thought back to his time with Wuya, and his teamups with a new villain every week, like fate had kept landing these new pawns in his path. To say it felt exactly like that wasn't exactly fair, but the nostalgia wasnt lost on him. 

"Seems like a waste to take an innovative player like Tohomiko out of the game," he found himself saying. 

"She'll be fine," Remi waved off, "she'll have her stupid friends and her stupid Xiaolin temple. She can live in the mountains and do whatever it is monks do and pretend she didn't lose everything to me." 

Bingo, he thought, finding the bruise in Remi’s ego. He could empathize with the familiar itch to see his foes completely destroyed. To play for the game's sake. He wondered how badly Remi wanted to hit her enemy where it hurt. 

"You know, that temple's been up for more than 1500 years?" Jack leaned on his hand, beckoning her closer like he had a secret. "Do you wonder why they spend so much time studying martial arts, in a place that's all about quiet meditation?" 

Remi nodded, intrigued by the conversational detour. "She said the Xiaolin monks used to be warriors, collecting and defending magical objects from people who wanted to use them for evil. They kind of just kept studying martial arts for the tradition. 'S a cool story, I didn't think you knew about it." 

Jack smiled, taking the pocket square out of his jacket. "Shroud of Shadows" he whispered to the cloth, wrapping it around his forearm. Remi's jaw dropped. Veer grabbed his invisible hand, feeling the cloth and his hand underneath. Jack watched him stumble over his fascination. "They call them Shen Gong Wu. 'Gods' Tools'" he explained, "they're capable of anything from flight, to transformation, to altering reality, to invisibility." He handed the little square of shroud to Veer. It reappeared in plain sight before their eyes. 

Veer turned it in his hands, fixated. Remi was positively beaming. "Imagine what this could do for light arms," she said, never missing a beat. "Military even." 

Oh, to be 18 again, Jack thought wistfully. 

\-- 

Sejun joined them as soon as soon as dinner was over, punctual as ever. Chase hadn’t left him a single note since the last one[8], and he was trying and failing not to let it get to him. Jack idly tapped the little stack of paper notes in front of him. Maybe later he could throw them around like confetti. He was sure Chase would hate that. 

Jack looked at the empty seat between him and Sejun, and made eye contact again as he looked up. Sejun had missed their little introduction into the world of Xiaolin Showdowns, but Jack didn’t want to interrupt his call.[11]

The auction began. Jack wondered what he was going to do now that he knew the tapestry was fake. His mom was still too upset to give him any more instructions. 

Items for auction came and went, Remi and Veer showing a renewed interest in the antiquities. They were becoming surprisingly impressionable, Jack thought. Whatever happened, he would come out of this night better off than if he hadn't attended.[12]

Sejun raised his bidder card on lot. It was an old plague doctor’s mask, mid 16th century, but it didn’t look as weathered by time as the rest of the artifacts, shiny and gilded with brass. His phone buzzed with a text. 

" _That lot is a Shen Gong Wu_ " it read. Jack startled, checking that the number was in fact from Chase. 

"What do I do?" he tried to send out 

" _Stall_ " Chase added before he could send his message. 

Veer and Remi were chastising Sejun for bidding on what was clearly a fake ‘as a joke’. It seemed everyone else on the floor was under the same assumption. Stupid Dashi and his stupid bedazzled magic stuff. The auctioneer was about to award Sejun the lot. 

“Five!” he shouted, standing up. Everyone in the table turned to look at him. He shrugged.[13] 

Sejun challenged his bid. Jack drove the price up as best as he could, staring at the screen that displayed the current price in English. 

He wasn’t planning on winning per say, but his bid was the latest when a thud was heard from backstage. He and Sejun were the only ones to notice the swish of a dragon’s tail from just under the stage curtain. Sejun hastily reached for his vibrating phone for some reason, and the auctioneer announced in the commotion that Jack had won the lot. [14]

Fuck, he had just spent so much money on a Shen Gong Wu and he didn’t even know what it did. Sejun was still staring at his phone, barely sweating. He looked up at the artifact he lost and looked nothing short of devastated. And Jack thought he was a drama queen. 

“ _Tell me you’re okay_ [15]” he texted Chase, nervous. 

A long minute ticked away at a snail’s pace. Jack’s fingers started to shake where they were wrapped around his phone. 

“ _…_ ” the screen flashed. “ _It has been dealt with._ ” 

Jack sighed so loud, heads turned. He shrugged yet again. 

“ _I will meet up with you shortly._ ” he added. “ _I hope you don’t mind I sent you a drink while I was in the service area._ ” 

What a weird fucking thing to bring up now, Jack thought, a smile creeping into his face. “ _I think I deserve more than just a drink for everything I just had to deal with._ ” 

“ _Oh?_ ” Chase replied. “ _Do tell._ ” he insinuated. 

Sejun turned to him, schooling his face into quiet passivity. A waiter placed a glass of red wine he assumed Chase got him next to him. He lifted it up to toast Sejun, teasing. 

Sejun smiled with his mouth, but not his eyes. "If I have to lose, I'm glad it's to you" he lied. Jack moved to the seat they left empty. Sejun started, looked at his phone again and excused himself. 

"Don't mind him" Remi assured, "he's been weird all night," she admitted. 

Jack nodded, being a bit of a sore loser himself. Chase was fine and he could relax, but these new revelations still left a bad taste in his mouth. He sipped his wine and paused. Something golden, twisted, was clinking around the bottom of his glass. 

\-- 

"I told you so" Jack laughed, perched on the wide balcony on the second floor of the museum where he had excused himself to get some air. "I told you that shop attendant was up to no good." 

" _Yes, yes, if I had just subjected myself to your jealous whims we could have avoided this whole thing._ " he could practically hear Chase’s smile. 

Jack blushed, thankful Chase couldn't see it through the dark or the phone. "Who was jealous? I was just looking out for my mom's new favorite consultant. You know, I tend to attract trouble." 

" _Of course_ " Chase said mockingly. " _That’s what attracted the dragon hunters._ " 

"Whatever” Jack smiled, giddy, “get back here already so we can leave. I want to see how well this new Wu I just spent a fucking fortune on works." 

Chase chuckled low through the phone. " _I promise that as we speak the payoff is becoming worth every penny._ " 

Jack leaned back to look at Seoul’s starless sky. He itched to learn the secrets of obfuscation, wondering what new opportunities Xiaolin’s twisted sibling held. Old enemies were new friends, and he didn’t have a lot to teach them yet, but he wanted to. Oh, he wanted to change the world. 

“Jack Spicer” a familiar figure emerged from the museum lights behind him. “Penny for your thoughts?” 

“Sejun” Jack smiled. “Get over here, you fucking weirdo.” 

Sejun handed him a flute of champagne. His fingers lingered around Jack’s where they touched. Jack brought the flute up to his mouth and licked up the side of it suggestively, laughing when Sejun startled away. 

In the darkness, Sejun seemed less guarded. He looked younger, and more prone to the rage simmering under the surface. Jack thought it was a good look on him. They hadn’t had a chance to get real yet, and Jack’s been looking forward to this confrontation all night. 

“I wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings between us over the auction,” Sejun said politely. 

“Why would _I_ have hard feelings?” Jack asked. “I won that auction.” 

Sejun laughed and it actually reached his eyes. “You could always see through me.” He chugged his champagne. “You always, _always_ had to make it hurt.” 

“Listen” Jack stepped into his space, challenging. “I don’t mind the lying, the cheating, the stealing, or the attempted murder” he said honestly, “I respect the scum you’ve become to survive. I respect all you sick sons of bitches in there. But you messed with what was _mine_ , and that doesn’t come without consequences.” 

“I intend to make things right” Sejun declared, finally getting to the point. “I stepped on you to get ahead as a child and it got me here. I’ll pay it all back tenfold.” 

Jack raised an eyebrow, skeptical. 

“Work for me” Sejun proposed. “You and me, together, we can make change. Real change.” 

Jack laughed in his face. 

“I’m serious” Sejun pushed, “think about it, Jack. Do you really see yourself in Pharmaceuticals for the rest of your life? You know that in ten years people are just going to start importing their consciousnesses into robot vessels that don’t age or get sick.” 

“I-" He got him there, “So what? I give up all _my_ plans to be your lackey?” 

“No” Sejun insisted. “You would be my partner. Draw it up however you like, but whatever’s mine is yours as long as you let me in on your plans.” 

Jack stepped back. “Explain.” 

“It’s your turn to explain, Jack. Ever since you started taking a bigger role in your parent’s company, your progress has been nothing short of miraculous. And what should I hear, but that you’ve introduced a device that can shrink anything, and that your nanotechnology has become some of the most complex and refined in the industry as a result.” 

Damn those corporate spies, Jack thought. He’d have to start an investigation, which meant so much paperwork. “What are you saying?” 

“I know about the Shen Gong Wu. I know about your little archaeological scavenger hunt. And, I know about your boyfriend Chase Young, the Heylin Prince of Darkness.” His expression softened. “And I don’t want to stop you, I want to help you, I want us to work together.” 

“You knew and you tried to kill him” Jack seethed. “You sent those assassins after him.” He accused. 

“I didn’t know” Sejun pleaded, caught off guard. “I didn’t know you knew, about Chase Young, until I saw you together.” 

Jack fiddled with the phone in his hands, nervous. “Then you tried to call it off? That’s why you disappeared during dinner?” 

Sejun hesitated. 

“You knew I knew. You saw us together, and you still-” 

“Jack-” 

“I mean it!” Jack yelled. “When I say nobody messes with what’s mine!” 

“You don't need to sell your soul to that monster to make something of yourself!" Sejun tried to grab Jack's arm, but he was pulled away at the last second. 

He looked behind him, to his hero, to Chase, looking beautiful and composed as Jack always remembered, except for his sleeves which looked like they had been passed halfway through a wood chipper. He could pull it off though, admittedly. "I feel like that speech should be reserved for me." He joked. Clearly, he was joking. 

Chase and Sejun stared each other down. From behind him, he could tell all the pieces were falling into place for Chase, exactly as Jack had predicted them. "Told you it was him." Jack couldn’t resist rubbing in. "Actually, I’m really glad he admitted it, or I’d feel really guilty about this next bit." 

"I really thought it was going to be the girl." Chase admitted. 

“But it wasn’t!” Jack reminded him. “This whole thing was Sejun’s plot to eliminate one of the most prominent figures in the Heylin side, as part of his plan to consolidate power. He’d have tried to off me too, except that he’s actually in love with me!” he accused, pointing at Sejun. 

A beat. 

Sejun looked around, as though he were waiting for _another_ big reveal. “Yes, I thought I just told you that... In my big ‘join me and we can change the world speech’?” 

Chase lifted a hand to placate him “no, no you made it very clear don’t worry. This was common knowledge up until this point.” 

Jack sputtered “is this really not news?” 

“It’s not.” 

“Veer told me he told you.” 

“I tried to tell him but he just never listened.”

“Look” Jack waved his hands. “If you like a guy you should just tell him! Instead of coming up with convoluted plots like hiring a dragon hunter to kill his boyfriend, or—or disguising your confession with an offer to join your company or-” 

“Or make him pretend to be your date at a museum gala to impress your childhood friends” Chase added, which- 

"Enough of this" Sejun demanded. "Jack, I don't want to make an enemy of you. The truth is Chase Young is a monster, one you can never hope to control, and whether or not you insist on siding with this monster, I will use the full force of my company, my resources, _everything_ to take him down." 

"I don't know about that," Jack smiled. He held his hand out to Chase who summoned the Mask of Mau and placed it square on his palm. "Lot 5684, a thousand years ago, the Xiaolin Grandmaster Dashi created it to defeat Mau's marauders, clay golems that could rebuild themselves over and over. It undoes any protection or regenerative ability. I can only assume you tipped the dragon hunter off to this so he could kill Chase.” 

Sejun nodded, apprehensive, wondering where Jack was going with his tirade. 

"It's a pretty fearsome Wu. To take down a whole army it leaves a lot of room for amplification. The safeguards and cloaking on it are stronger than most to keep them safe from people like me and, I guess, you. I bet you were counting on that too, and with the obfuscation charm you put on Chase's cufflinks, he'd be in the dark about it until your hunter could slay him." Jack went on, Chase bristled in deadly anticipation next to him. "And now you're wondering how I'm going to use this against you." 

"You're not going to hurt me." Sejun refused to back down, unafraid, practically daring Jack to try to do something him on his own turf, where he had made himself as powerful as he was. 

"Hurt you? Never." Jack placed a hand to his heart, offended. "You see, I'm a caregiver at heart. Must be why I'm owning the Pharma game so hard. You know I've been using the Shen Gong Wu to further my parents’ research, so once I had the Mask of Mau it was all a matter of getting creative... By itself, it's just a weapon-" 

Chase summoned another Wu, holding it up to glint against the light. "But when it's used in tandem with the Reversing Mirror, it has the ability to accelerate healing to an unprecedented degree." 

Sejun spared a glance at his ringing phone. He looked at Jack, half-mad, finally ready to show his true face. "You _didn't._ " 

"Tell your brother I said hi." Jack said, head held high like the cat that got the canary. 

"You're going to pay for this" Sejun threatened. "This isn't going to stop me, it's barely going to slow me down." 

Jack held his arm out for Chase, who accepted it with only mild eye rolling. "Oh, I hope not. I had a lot of fun tonight. Let's have lunch with the gang when you're less, preoccupied." Jack smiled against the portal that Chase had ripped in time-space behind them. He made a show of adjusting his suit, light bouncing off plated twisted dragon cufflinks. "You'll know where to find me." 

He and Chase made their exit through the portal, arm in arm. 

\-- 

He gave up trying to sleep at 2:00 am Seoul standard time. Chase had apparently given up earlier. 

He was standing half-naked in front of the floor to ceiling picture windows of their hotel suite. In the darkness, the city was a constellation of little stars, and he was a void in silent starkness against the night sky. 

"A little early to be up meditating." Jack observed. 

"I almost died today" Chase said, face obscured, breathing slow. "I had forgotten what that was like. It had been so long." 

Jack wondered why it was that he didn't care. In his heart he knew that if anything had happened to Chase, he would... well, he wouldn't know what he'd do. "I'm glad you didn't" he said instead, wondering about the ramifications he'd face for that in the morning. 

"I don't care" Chase reassured. "I don't care that you don't care." 

"What then?" Jack pried carefully, unsure of this strange space they occupied in the moment, where he could care less about whether either of them lived or died. "Did you think I was too soft on Sejun? That I shouldn't be making lunch plans with Remi or Veer." 

"It doesn't matter what I think" Chase said, lying again, "but they are dangerous allies. You had a chance to nip them in the bud, and instead you gave them roots in our fight." 

Jack sat up to look at Chase more clearly. "You don't think they'll be loyal?" Silence. "They won't. They're too smart for their own good. They're evil, independent, powerful, game-changers, and now they're Heylin." 

"You're not going to be able to control them." 

"I don't want to. I don't want to have to." 

Chase was quiet for a while. Jack counted the seconds to his reply, like lightning to thunder. 

"There was a time when _I_ wanted so much, I gave up everything. My friends, my mentor, my mortality, all of it was nothing in the face of my want. I thought time had eroded my desires, as it does with all things. Tonight, I almost died and now I realize... how much there is to want again. Now it scares me. Should I have to face death to feel alive again? Should I be weak to be strong? I devote so much of myself to control, and to what end? I'm a slave to the same ancient twisted compulsions that drove me as a child." 

"You think too much" Jack said without thinking. "Want whatever you want, and then leave it to me. I'll get it for you" he vowed. _Vowed_ with all the gravity the word entailed, and yet it felt like exactly what he should have said in that moment, where nothing felt like anything but meant everything. 

"I'll leave it to you" Chase whispered to the darkness. "I'm trusting you" Jack barely made out. "I'll play your game, until it's done. So, what is it that _you_ want?" 

Jack closed his eyes, thinking about it. He wanted power, he wanted change, he wanted the things that were not known to _be_ known in all their power and spectacle. He felt a dip in the bed beside him, and opened his eyes to Chase staring at him, eyes glinting like stars. 

"I want that too," Chase said. 

It felt like some heavy, weighty thing signed in blood, that moment. "Then it's yours." 

Chase kissed him. They fell into bed together, kissing. "You don't know what you've done" Chase warned, even as they got lost in the sheets. 

[16]

  
  
  
  


[1]A vicious clawing burning out of him from the inside. That's what it felt like. A confusion settling under his skin, like being occupied by two minds. Heylin magic, he thought, but crossed the usual suspects off his list. Obfuscation was the spiritual counterpart to the glamour of comprehension, but this magic was eerie and unattached, emitting a strange artificial frequency. He rounded back into the antiquities wing. The displays were being moved one by one for the auction. He was no closer to finding the source of the spell, but he knew it was still close. A predatory curiosity challenged his better judgement. He literally couldn't help but feel intrigued by the fact. It was watching him, he thought with a thrill.   
[2]He read, squinting at the little animated interface of his smartphone. Chase growled softly, a low rumble in his chest, and caught himself. Jack’s new potential allies reeked of trouble, not unlike Jack himself, however the boy in question was no threat to them. Sejun Han, Jack had introduced him, with his bright eyes twisted in jealous stares was crippled by his infatuation. A hatred rose from him that traded off in perceived loves and imagined futures. He could be useful to Jack, if he were just a little better at concealing his intentions.  
[3]Except he did. Because for all of Jack's shortsighted, ironclad focus on his whims, he often neglected to pay attention to what was  
[4]right under his nose[5]  
[5]When it hit him, it hit him like a bullet between the eyes. He spared a mortified glance at his person, zeroed in on the source of the strange magic, impossible to ignore now that he had realized it. He tried to flood the little charm with his own magic to an unpleasant shock. It strengthened its field as though whatever was controlling it was aware he had caught on, and was driving him into a corner.  
[6]He was seeing in hot and cold, following the bright oranges and reds to the kitchens. He slid around the preoccupied mess of warm and living life forms that muddled about in the wet humidity of sauces and steams. His hands itched at the smell of human sweat and spices and black magic. He could feel himself losing control to the beast that lay slumbering under his skin. _Retribution_ it cried, _food_ it flooded his senses. He craved to kill so much he felt it as hunger pangs, deep and strong enough to wrack his bones. He tried to remove the noisy charms from his person, ripping his sleeves with dragon claws, invoking his protection spells as soon as he was physically able.  
[7]When his head had cleared, it cleared all at once, and he reeled in shuddering breaths as he reaclimatted to control. The kitchen staff was watching him, scared still. He enveloped the kitchen in obfuscation, pleased when they resumed their work, dazed but none the wiser. He stared, still sitting, at the charms that lay on the floor under scraps of his dress shirt. They panged softly in pulses. A signal. Chase drew closer to inspect them with a clear head, holding them in his palm warily. Dragon teeth and dragon marrow, he recognized. It's magic was a bastardization of the spell invoked in the Lao Mang Lone soup They were not just undoing his human form, they were transmitting his location. Just as he thought to warn Jack, he dropped them into a nearby glass of wine on instinct. It was not enough to stop it beeping deafeningly loud once, shocking him senseless, as he was dragged into the freezer.  
[8]He was in his dragon form when he woke, the violent cold of the freezer had set like lethargy in his blood even as the constant shifting between bodies was driving him to exhaustion. He was in the dimly lit backstage of the auction, caught in a net of sphynx hair. Without thinking, he struggled against the net, snapping cords with with his innate supernatural strength. The cords rejoined where they were severed, clearly spellbound. He continued to thrash around regardless.[9]  
[9]Two people approached him, dragon hunters it seemed, posing as stagehands, unmistakably familiar. He roared at them and the shorter one silenced him with a kick to the mouth. They wanted silence, then. She rounded him, checking the little charms she lay in a perimeter on the floor. They rang in the air like chaos, prying his sense of self from his own body, leaving him vulnerable to the beast underneath. The spell was incomplete, pained, brute-forced with technology to keep him a dragon and stop there. The other hunter stalked toward him, spear in hand. His face was obscured by a mask with ruby eyeholes and a long beak, gilded and set with stones.[10]  
[10]Chase struggled futile against the net, wasting energy, panic uncontrollable. The hunter in the mask cut his cheek with the end of his spear, it bled and healed over. He walked away, talking on a smartphone. He couldn't afford to waste energy on his baser whims. He forced his head to clear, and hoped the beast would quiet as a result. The hunter with the spear returned, his mask glowing with Xiaolin magic. Chase cleared his head and held on to the reins that held back the beast's whims for dear life.  
[11] "Mask of Mau" the hunter said, lowly, drawing the spear over his head with purpose. In the split-second it took to plunge the bone spear into him, Chase let the beast struggle with all its might against the net, which failed to reconstitute itself, and pounce at the hunter. The huntress behind him drew a sword, and it bled unperturbed where it struck his back, the mask's magic already taking effect in its field of vision. He thought fast, even as the beast moved his body of its own accord, thrashing without reason, unable to dodge blows when the hunters fielded him on both sides. He focused on doorways and exits, knowing he had to get out of the range of their charms.  
[12]He found himself in the rafters of the stage, wrapped around his wounds like an injured cat. This beast refused to listen to reason, and even as he struggled for enough control to ask Jack for help, it forced its own instincts on to him. He shouldn't rely on Jack. Treacherous, cowardly Jack and the gifts he threw at him to placate his insecurities. He didn't have time for it. The hunters replaced the Mask in its item case as it was wheeled out into the stage, looking toward his direction in the rafters to make sure he was still there. The beast bristled in the distinct animal way Chase despised. He needed time to consolidate his forms as best as he could. He had a plan, and the beast's cooperation was imperative.  
[13]Jack was probably doing his best to buy time because the hunters paced about nervously, watching the location of their charms. He rolled his shoulders, control shaky at best, but not severed as before. The magic had a time limit, he was sure, until the trace amounts of dragon used snuffed out with him in the mix and he was stuck in this double state between man and monster forever. He was aiming for the moment right before.  
[14]The hunters fought well enough. With the handicap of his loss of control and the magic of the Shen Gong Wu keeping the wounds they already inflicted from healing, they were doing well enough to push him back into the circle of their charms. Their attacks shifted from jabs to swings, hoping to keep him in line long enough. One fell sweep from the girl was all he was waiting for.  
[15]Dragon tooth and dragon marrow, the heart of lineage, but Lao Mang Lone required the whole dragon. Blood, meat, and skin taken as an offering, and in return, control over the beast that time would create. He thanked whatever gods were watching that the spell was invoked fully, as limited as his resources were. His lopped off tail still sat in the middle of the circle of charms, among the unconscious bodies of the dragon hunters. His human form didn't seem to suffer the loss much, but even the magic to repair his clothes couldn't unshred his sleeves. Pity. His phone buzzed with a text.  
[16]As an aside, Jack Spicer was an idiot, prone to flights of fancy, slave to his dreams, but he also knew how to show a man a good time. If some half of him couldn't or didn't want to bother trying to comprehend that, then that was on him really.  


  
  
  
  


\-- 

"Do you actually have a plan" Chase asked over coffee, Tuesday morning, "aside from releasing more chaos into the world in the form of wealthy allies with nothing better to do?" 

"The chaos part is pretty much the gist of it, really" Jack admitted, buttoning his starched dress shirt. "We need a lot of raw material to get the ball rolling. The Xiaolin monks have been consolidating their power unobstructed for too long. Let's even the playing field a little, make it harder for them to get their hands on Shen Gong Wu." 

Chase couldn't fault his logic, even if personally he wouldn't have gone about it so recklessly. "Is that what you call corresponding with the dragon of fire, to warn her about the plot against her trade?" He chided. 

Jack froze. "That was just to fire Remi up. She can't win against Kimiko too soon or she'll burn herself out. I'm not too big to play both sides, you know?" He defended, reaching down to yank his tie away from the dread lion, Sigurd. 

"Yes, you've proven your treachery many times over the years" Chase reminisced. Jack reddened, not unattractively. 

"That's business." He pulled his tie out of the lion's maw, but his face twisted when he saw how it had been slobbered on. 

"I don't think he wants you to leave" Chase sipped his coffee from the chaise lounge, feet up. When he looked up, Jack was there. He did not disagree with the kiss Jack left on his cheek. 

"There's more to my plan. Than just chaos, I mean." 

Chase was intrigued. "Do tell." 

Jack opened his mouth and paused to think about it. "Sorry, never mind, the rest of the plan is just more chaos." 

"Jack." 

"I need to learn Heylin magic. Really become a proper adversary, you know?" He ran his hands through his hair many times. He insisted, before, that that was just the style these days. 

"You want me to teach you?" Chase was a little surprised. They had tried that once and it did not end well. 

"For now," Jack said, scheming no doubt. "But I was thinking more along the lines of our favorite rhymes-with-bitch." 

"Wuya" Chase covered his face with his hand, dreading the idea. Jack nodded, mind made up. "I don't know how you're going to find her. I haven't been able to trace her magic for years." 

"You let her leave without restoring her magic?" 

"Can you imagine what she'd do to us all, if I did?" 

"It's all I've been doing recently, to be honest." Jack admitted. "We need her back on our side, or at least out of hiding. Leave finding her to me." With that, he finally finished getting ready. 

There was a time when he hated the way Jack encroached into his space, now he only hated letting him go. In the blue morning light, Jack strode out of his chambers with purpose. Chase wondered what kind of monster he was releasing into the world, and felt a thrill. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this story was a ride, anyway this definitely won't be my last story in this weird au thing. Thanks to everyone who read or commented so far!


End file.
